This invention relates to inputting apparatuses, such as a remote commander for remotely operating an electronic equipment like a television receiver, and in particular relates to inputting apparatuses which are compacted by using a folding structure and easy to operate as well.
For operation of AV (audio-visual) devices like television receivers and optical disk players for home use, or other electronic equipment, recently, almost all of them can be operated remotely by using a remote commander (called a remote controller below).
Take the remote controller for TV as an example, a recent type of remote controller for TV has already been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1), which comprises a select button for selecting BS (broadcasting satellite) high-definition or BS digital broadcasting, surface wave analog broadcasting, surface wave digital broadcasting, CS (communication satellite) digital broadcasting or data broadcasting, and an operation button for selecting channels.
Moreover, a remote controller that has, other than the operation button for these broadcast selections, a button for operating a video player on one remote controller, has also been proposed.
From the foregoing, for the recent remote controller, the number of operation buttons is getting more and there is a trend that the remote controller itself gets longer in longitudinal direction and larger. However, that the remote controller getting larger in size has made the remote controllers more difficult to operate and has brought about a problem that operation itself becomes more complicated and less user-friendly, because a lot of buttons are placed on the same surface.
Therefore, because of such reasons, remote controllers of a folding type have been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2001-346281
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication H05-211693
When making a remote controller into a folding type, making a first operation housing having a first button group consisted of a plurality of input buttons and being mainly held by the user, and a second housing having a second button group consisted of a plurality of input buttons to fold and overlap using a hinge section can be considered.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 16, in one operation housing, a sub-substrate 50 is provided and in the other operation housing, a main substrate 51 is provided. To illustrate by reference to FIG. 16, 52 shows a microcomputer-based control unit mounted on the main substrate 51, and is controlled by the keys in response to the input button operation of the second input button group provided on the other operation housing. The key code signals corresponding to the keys of a key matrix 53 on the main substrate 51 are supplied to this control unit 52, and this control unit 52 generates control code signals in response to this input button operation.
Moreover, the key code signals corresponding to the keys from the key matrix 54 of the sub-substrate 50 are supplied via a connection cable 55 to the control unit 52 on the main substrate 51. The key code signals control the keys in response to the operation of the input buttons of the first input button group on the one operation housing. This control unit 52 generates control signals in response to the operation of this input button.
The control code signals generated by this control unit 52 are supplied to an infrared light emitting diode (LED) 56 for transmission on the main substrate 51, and at the same time supplied via the connection cable 55 to a first transmitting infrared light emitting diode (LED) 57 on the sub-substrate 50.
Moreover, on the main substrate 51, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel 58 of the display section is mounted, and the display signals from this control unit 52 are supplied to this liquid crystal display panel 58 of the display section. As shown in FIG. 16, a battery 59 used as power supply is mounted on the sub-substrate 50, the power from this battery 59 is supplied to the first transmitting infrared light emitting diode 57, and at the same time the power from this battery 59 is supplied through the connection cable 55 to the control unit 52, the second transmitting infrared light emitting diode 56 and display section's liquid crystal display panel 58.
Moreover, 60 indicates a reed switch mounted on the other operation housing. When the other operation housing is folded up, this reed switch 60 is opposite to a permanent magnet 61 mounted on the one operation housing and makes this reed switch on.
The on/off signals of this reed switch are supplied to the control unit 52. When this reed switch 60 is on, the control code signal from this control unit 52 is supplied to the first transmitting light emitting diode 57 but not to the second transmitting light emitting diode 56. When this reed switch 60 is off, the control code signal from the control unit 52 is supplied to the second transmitting light emitting diode 56 but not to the first transmitting light emitting diode 57.
When such a folding type remote controller is configured as shown in FIG. 16, the number of lines of the connection cable 55 is large, for example 17 lines, which makes its structure complicated and results in an undesired condition that the reliability becomes lower and cost higher.
In view of the above mentioned problems, the object of the present invention is to reduce the number of cable lines and simplify the structure of the connection cable, so as to provide a connection cable with improved reliability and lower cost.